May 25, 2007

Pearson's Purchase of eCollege Signals Publishers' Interest in Online Education

By DAN CARNEVALE

Pearson's announcement last week that it will spend $477-million to buy eCollege, which markets online-learning tools and services, appears to be an attempt by the multinational publishing powerhouse to become more competitive in the growing online-education market.

Several publishing companies create online courses and sell them to colleges. Publishing officials consider that a natural extension of one of their traditional roles: providing textbooks.

Under the proposed deal,

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